212 OF MANURE. 



boiled down to about 600 gallons, will slack 64 bushels of 

 lime-shells, a quantity sufficient for two acres. The ex- 

 pence of carrying the water from the sea, the evaporation 

 and slackening, will cost 20 s. ; the 64- bushels of lime-shells 

 cost him 40 s., or L. 3 in all ; hence the total price of this 

 manure, is only at the rate of 30 s. per acre, and the ex- 

 pence of carriage must be trifling, owing to the smallness of 

 the bulk. The price, however, must depend upon the 

 strength of the sea- water, the price of the coals, and of the 

 lime-shells. In situations where the sea-water is strong, 

 double the quantity of lime, slackened at the sea-side, 

 would answer the purpose equally well, and it is in the 

 power of every one to make it. Indeed brine might be pre- 

 pared, by making pits in the neighbourhood of the sea, 

 where the soil is retentive, or reservoirs in the rocks, and 

 filling them in the summer months with sea-water ; the heat 

 of the sun would soon make the water of the strength 

 required, at very little expence. Mr Mitchell has also 

 made some experiments with urine and lime, which he has 

 found a good manure. He gets the urine at the barracks 

 at Ayr in considerable quantities. He has likewise used as 

 much lime as dried up the whole night-soil, in cleaning the 

 privies at the barracks, and found it not only useful as a 

 manure, but that it prevented a nuisance which formerly 

 used to annoy much both the town of Ayr and the garrison. 

 The lime made the contents of the privy so easy to work, 

 that the price of the night-soil and ashes, which formerly 

 used to sell for L. 6, now fetches L. 40. The persons who 

 have the sale of barrack-dung, ought to be compelled to 

 mix the night-soil with lime, all over the kingdom. 



